Oceanside, February 18, 2014 —Tri-City Medical Center has joined the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®–AFIB, a quality improvement program created to help hospital teams consistently provide the latest guideline-based treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation, or AF, is a quivering or irregular heartbeat affecting more than 2.7 million Americans, and accounts for about one-third of hospitalizations for cardiac rhythm disturbance. People with AF are five times more likely to suffer a stroke and can develop blood clots, heart failure and other complications.
The American Heart Association’s GWTG–AFIB was developed to help healthcare professionals utilize a quality improvement blueprint for how best to care for AF patients using the most up-to-date research-based guidelines.
As a GWTG–Stroke and Heart Failure participating hospital Tri-City Medical Center is encouraged to develop a comprehensive system for providing rapid diagnosis and treatment of AF patients that includes appropriate use of safe anticoagulants to prevent stroke and heart-rate controlling medications to prevent heart failure.
Tri-City Medical Center is also increasing its efforts to identify those patients who have AF, using GWTG-AFIB protocols for treatment, monitoring tools, and patient education. Through GWTG–AFIB, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association provides Tri-City Medical Center training in the program’s patient management tool and the opportunity to track performance against the guidelines and national benchmarks.
“Tri-City Medical Center is dedicated to helping our patients with atrial fibrillation have the best possible outcomes, and implementing the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-AFIB program will help us accomplish this by making it easier for our teams to put proven knowledge and guidelines to work on a daily basis,” said — Lydia Serrin, RN, MSN, Clinical Care Coordinator for the CardioVascular Health Institute.
About Tri-City Medical Center
Tri-City Medical Center has served its community for more than half a century and is a Gold Seal- approved full service, acute- care hospital with two advanced institutes and over 500 physicians practicing in 60 specialties. Tri-City Medical Center has become the county’s leader in robotic and minimally invasive surgical technologies, including being the exclusive county-wide provider for the Mazor Renaissance Surgical Guidance System for surgical repair of spinal deformities, injuries and rehabilitation. Tri-City Medical Center is also a nationwide destination for hip preservation surgery. Tri-City Medical Center also has the only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in North San Diego County, now with the NICVIEW System, a password-protected webcam system that allows parents and relatives to remotely view their newest family member. Tri-City Medical Center was recognized as an innovator in medical treatments, research, technology and care delivery as well as an anchor of health in the country.
For more information about Tri-City Medical Center and Tri-City Healthcare District, please visit www.tricitymed.org
About Get With The Guidelines
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations. For more information, visit heart.org/quality and heart.org/myhealthcare.
